Oregon women’s tennis kicks off its season today in Stanford, California, in what will be one of many road trips on deck for the 2016-17 season.
The Ducks will compete in the Northwest Regional Championships along with fellow Pac-12 teams California, Washington and Washington State. Six Ducks — Marlou Kluiving, Nia Rose, Alyssa Tobita, Daniela Nasser, Shweta Sangwan and Julia Eshet — of the team’s seven players will participate.
Following Stanford, the Ducks will travel to Atlanta, Los Angeles and Spokane, Washington, before returning to compete in Eugene in January. After that, they will make three more appearances at home.
Head coach Alison Silverio is confident in her team’s progress and work ethic heading into the new season.
“Our girls have been working so hard; it’s going to be fun to see them compete against outside competition, and see them raise their level even more,” she said in a news release.
Silverio has had an impressive track record since joining the Ducks two seasons ago. In 2016, she lead her team to the program’s best start since 2004, while the Ducks maintained a ranking for all 15 weeks of the season. The Ducks jumped to No. 28 at one point, the highest ranking for the program since 2005.
Silverio is also known for bringing in talented recruits, which this year included high-school standout Julia Eshet. She was ranked No. 5 in the state of Florida and No. 35 nationally, according to TennisRecruiting.net.
Eshet is the only freshman on the seven-woman roster. Nasser and Sangwan are both sophomores, Rose and Tobita are juniors,and Kluiving and Paloma Gomez are seniors.
“Alyssa (Tobita) and Shweta (Sangwan) are going to go in and really lead the way,” Silverio said of the doubles partners.
The two have already competed this year in the All American Tennis Championships where they just fell short of the Main Draw, losing to Virginia Tech (8-6). Last season, the Tobita and Sangwan individually earned 21 singles wins a piece.
Silverio spread out the levels of experience among her players, pairing Kluiving with Eshet and Rose with Nasser.
“[I’m excited] for the upperclassmen to just really step up, being leaders in every sense of the way,” Silverio said. “Not only leading in competition, but in preparation: during the match and after the match.”
Last season, the Ducks finished with an 11-11 record, going 113-95 in singles and 54-49 in doubles.
“This team is on a mission,” Silverio said about the upcoming season in the press release. “Our words have matched our actions prepping for the season and I’m really proud of that.”
Follow Alexa Chedid on Twitter @alexachedid18